Things I Would Have Asked During My White House Visit

Barack Obama met with President George W. Bush this week during his first visit to the White House as president-elect.

I can only imagine what an overwhelming, yet electric experience that would be for anyone in such a position. Such a historical event, in such a historical place.

No matter who the person, you have to respect the president, whether outgoing or incoming, the authority and trust they represent, and their role as our commander in chief. And to meet with the president, whether you're a common citizen or the president-elect, is an both an honor and a privilege. You have to be in awe of the White House itself too. It represents our 232 year history (Ok, it's a few years shy of that, itself), has countless stories to be told (and many secrets that we will never know about) and is the residence and office for the most powerful person in the world.

I've never met a president before. I met many presidential candidates and even met George W. Bush once during his 2000 campaign. I got him to autograph an issues publication of his.

That being said, if I were Barack Obama (or any president-elect meeting a sitting president in the White House the first time after the election), there are a still a few questions I would have to ask that probably are not on the typcial list of things to ask:

• Do we really have an alien ship stashed at Area 51?
• Will they let you hook a Playstation or a Wii up to the projection system in the White House theater?
• Have you ever wanted to go off script with a knock-knock joke?
• They do carry chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the kitchen, right?
• So this button right here, bad.. OK, and this one is for room service?
• Where are all the secret passageways?
• Think they would mind if I played paintball in Rose Garden?
• It's pretty fun to slide down the banister of the main staircase, isn't it?
• Those headphones they give you to listen to at international meetings -- you can plug those up to an Ipod, right?
• Can I issue an Executive Order that all of Congress participate in Dress Up As Your Favorite Star Wars Character Day?
• Have they ever let you go out into the woods with the presidential station wagon in the dead of winter to select and chop down the First Family's Christmas tree?
• Who do I need to to give a 6-month vacation to in order to be able to fly Air Force One for a few minutes?
• What's the best game you've ever bowled in White House bowling alley?
• There's a massager and heating unit built into the big chair in the Oval Office, right?
• Would you really call it an Oval, or more of a Circle or Ellipse?
• Will they let Air Force One buzz the tower at Andrews, or do they always say that the pattern is full?
• Which one of the foreign presidents/national leaders is the most fun to trade humorous email forwards with?
• Think they'll let me take Bill Clinton's picture down and replace it with a big orange Clemson Tiger Paw?

and --- drum roll, please.........................

• Hey, all these flashy screens and buttons in the Situation Room are really cool and make it look like something out of a sci-fi movie - don't you ever want to stroll in dressed as Darth Vader?

Election Day Part 4: So, So, So Disappointed

Damn.

That's pretty much all I have to say.

I wish us all good luck. We're going to need it.

This is not the change I was hoping for.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's wonderful that we've come to the point as a nation of Americans, brothers and sisters, to elect a minority president. I just wish it would have been someone else.

We're in for ... well, we're in for four years of socialist liberal policies that could potentially bankrupt our country, especially if we start spreading the wealth around too much.

We're in for tax increases. We're in for more entitlement programs. We're in for more government involvement in people's lives.

We're in for a signficant weakening of funding and support for the people who need that government involvement the most: our men and women in uniform. Iraq and Afghanistan will be in for a rough ride in turn. We could be in for more terrorist activity on our soil. Let's hope and pray that doesn't happen.

This is a dark, dark day for America.

We needed someone who would put us back on the map as a strong world power with a vibrant economy. That won't happen under Obama's watch, I can guarantee you that.

I guess we just ride out the storm the best we can and hope that someone better will come along in 2012 with the ability to fix the changes that Obama will screw us all up with.

Election Day Part 3: Problems and Solutions

What do you get when you are not told when you walk in the door which line to get into? (And you realize 30 minutes into your wait you should have been in the other line because of the first letter of your last name)

A lot of confusion and long-ass lines.

What do you get when you mix slow people, who have to flip through pages of books with the registration rolls on them, and record voter turnout?

Even longer lines.

What do you get when you mix people who don't know how to use technology along with long-ass lines?

Much longer lines.

How do we solve this?

Well, I have a couple of thoughts about that.

Solution I (please note this involves still going to the polls):
Our drivers licenses in South Carolina have bar codes on them. Supposedly, voter registration is tied into our driver's licenses.

I buy a box of Claritin a month. When I do this, they scan my license bar code. If they can scan my license in order to authorize me to purchase pseudophedrine, then I don't know why the same thing can't be done to verify people's voter registration.

When you go to a concert or sporting event nowadays, they will scan your ticket's bar code before you are let into the event. If this kind of technology exists, let's use it in other ways.

So we implement this how?

A person with a hand-scanner stationed at each door. You can't get into the building until your license is scanned. The scanner is linked wirelessly to a nearby computer which is linked with the central voter registration database. It verifies that you are registered. The person with the scanner verifies that you are the person pictured on the license. And you're good to go.

Then they tell you which of the (and let's not do two lines, let's do three or four) lines to split off to.

Things would go much faster.

Solution II:
I get that the integrity of the process needs to be maintained and that making sure the person voting is who they say they are is part of maintaining that integrity. So really, this solution might not be as practical as of yet given the limitations of technology from multiple standpoints... but, here goes.

When someone registers to vote, they file either a fingerprint or retinal scan (or both). And preferably this be done when they get their driver's license and all of that data linked between the DMV and Voter Services' offices.

When it comes time to vote, you go to your computer. You go to your state's election office's website. It prompts you for some login credentials - including your name, birthday, registration number, and a Personal Indentification Number that you create upon your initial registration to vote.

Then you use the web-cam in your computer for your retinal scan and/or the fingerprint reader for further security and to complete your login.

Then you come to a page or pages that has all your ballot. You cast your vote. You hit submit - and then the system submits your ballot and locks you out from further use until the next election.

And in conclusion...

OK, the realistic application of either method may not yet be practical. But one could only hope.

Here's another thing to consider... but this idea has it's own issues also.

There is no reason why in this day and age that as votes are cast on these electronic machines that the votes cannot be submitted in real-time, electronically, into any database in which they need to be registered so that a running count of the votes is available throughout the day, nationwide.

And here is the issue with that - if people know who is leading, it will end up not being about voting but more of a contest. The fairness of the election and of the voting could be questioned.

Regardless, there's a lot of things that our election officials could do to make the process easier and quicker. But we've got a process, and that's the most important point of all. We all have an equal opportunity to have our say about who sits in the Oval Office or who represents us on city council.

Election Day Part 2: The Return

All day long I had been hearing about long lines at the polling places. My boss didn't make it in until after 9 am this morning because of lines at his polling place. Another coworker of mine did the same thing I did this morning - went to vote, left, and planned to return later in the day.

I asked my boss today if he would mind if I leave by about half an hour early to give me some extra time if needed to stand in line to vote. He said as long as I was going to vote for McCain, no problem.

"Yeah, well, I would rather vote for Fred Thompson, but he didn't stick it out, so yes, McCain," I said, hopped in the car, and left.

As I neared the school where our precinct votes, I expected to see the infamous long lines of voters' cars I had been hearing about all day.

But the parking lot was almost vacant. When I got inside, there was nobody waiting to check in. And each of the dozen or so voting boxes had one person casting their vote.

I joked around with the ladies at the desk a little bit about the lines -- apparently it was non-stop until around 2 o'clock. Then it was steady for a while and slowed to a trickle a little bit before I arrived.

I asked if I could take a picture of the non-existent lines so I could post in on my blog, because I told them that some people may not believe me when I would tell them that at 5 pm there was no line whatsoever.

First off they didn't quite get what a blog is. Secondly, they didn't quite get why I wanted to take a picture to go along with it. And, third, they said no. They said cell phones are not allowed to be used inside a polling place.

I would have argued with them a little bit about the point that technically I wasn't going to use the phone to make a call -- but I didn't quite feel like arguing with a bunch of retirees. I did that at church once recently and it didn't turn out real well.

Anyway... my vote it cast. Not that it will really count much. But I know I voted - I would have felt guilty if I hadn't.

Now when people start bitching about how bad things under Obama will be and then how they have gotten, those that had been brainwashed into voting for him will have no room to talk because they're the fools that will have put him in office. And I will happily say, well, you should have voted for the other guy like I did.

Oh, and to top it all off, they were out of the "I Voted" stickers. Not that I really care, but I did ask about those -- and then told them that I'll just go out and purchase a "Hi, my name is" tag and write on it "I Voted" and wear that around for the rest of the day.

Election Day

I went to go vote this morning. I knew that there would be a high turnout today. But was both pleasantly and annoyingly surprised when I stepped inside the high school that is our polling place and the line was already at the door -- and mind you this is in a hall that's probably 100 or so feet long before you get to where the voting booths are stationed.

Ok... time to make a decision.

Decision made, I stepped into the line. Within 5 minutes, the line was already snaking around the corner of the building outside. Within another 10 minutes, the line in front of me had not moved.

I did some quick calculations. At this rate, I will make it to work at noon.

Sorry Johnny, I'll come vote for you this afternoon. I stepped out of line and headed to the car.

I guess I'll try to leave work a little early and go vote then. I'm sure the lines will be even longer, but then I won't have to worry about never making it to work.

On my way back to the car my thought was "Well, if they're all voting McCain that's a good thing." Then I noticed an Obama bumper sticker on a car pulling up to a spot near mine.

Well, OK - so maybe he'll only get 1 vote out of my precinct. I could only wish that out of all the voters nationwide today that one person would be the only one voting for Obama. Unfortunately, no such luck.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

George Bush is bad - he has screwed everything up. It's all George Bush's fault.

Wah, wah.

I am so tired of hearing that.

What has happened in the last few years? Housing foreclosures have gone up, home values have declined, oil prices have skyrocketed, China's economy has taken off while ours has gone into the toilet, we're set to retire our shuttle fleet and leave our astronauts at the mercy of a nation that is trending back towards communism... the list goes on.

Where did we go wrong?

Who's to blame? You may say Bush, I say Congress. Politics 101 - Congress is who puts legislation in place. The power is really in their hands to fix what we've allowed to get broken. Who has been the majority party in Congress for the last two years? The Democrats.

Who else is to blame? Now let's look at the chief executive.

You may say Bush is to blame. Ok. So he's not real smart and he can't pronounce "nuclear," but he had the largest terrorist attack on the United States to deal with along with political and economic fallout that resulted directly from those attacks. His record of intelligent decisions may not be stellar, and some blame can be put on him, his cabinet, and his advisors. But look what he's had to deal with.

I say a large part of the blame is on Clinton. He should have surgically taken care of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban when he had the chance, but he chose not to. Then we wouldn't (hopefully) have had a major terrorist attack on our country, have to deal with being in a multiple-front war right now, and be spending the billions upon billions of dollars to fight that war.

Then we can look at it from a "trickle-back" standpoint, and lay some blame on the Democratic congress under George H. Bush, go back and put some blame on Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon ... and while we're at it, let's put some of the blame on all of us for taking the daring and brave move in creating Isreal following World War II. Most of the middle east has had us in their crosshairs since then.

(Okay, so going back and changing or stopping any of the things that have even in the smallest way contributed to the current state of our economy and our reputation around the world opens up the whole issue of screwing up the space-time continuum and creating innumerable paradoxes)

Fast forward back to 2008 - and we've got McCain blaming Obama and the Democrats. And Obama blaming McCain and the Republicans.

We should just go ahead and portion out the blame so everyone in Congress has some laid on them. And we can continue the blame game all we want. Really, though, it's time for all of these clowns in Washington to stop being politicians and start acting like leaders.

Lead us into a safe and prosperous future. Don't just take a backseat with the nation on autopilot.

After watching the presidential debate the other night, I came to the conclusion that this election for me is really about who is the lesser of two evils and who has less potential to screw this country up even further.

I really don't know. I would like to think McCain. But here he goes off on a $300 billion mortgage buyout. This after a $700 billion bailout, recovery package, whatever you want to call it. Granted, he says, oh yeah most of the money to do the mortgage buyout is already in the recovery package.

You know what, we will all still end up picking up the tab for these predatory lenders, for greedy Wall Street executives, for corporations with no real care in the world for the Average Joe Sixpack (thanks Sarah for the catch-phrase). We are all going to be footing the bill for this for a long time.

And it's time we put an end to coprorate greed, its lobbyists, and the pork they receive. Again, as with everything in the political world, easier said than done.

Both McCain and Obama can say "tax-breaks" all they want, but the sad reality is that with our economy on the track it is and our ability to cover this bailout, get our nation out of debt, and put additional corrective measures into place to fix our economy, it's going to take money out of all of our pockets and I would venture to guess we'll not see any tax breaks, and instead have tax increases under either candidate.

I really have a half-mind to write Fred Thompson in on the ballot because both Obama and McCain grate my last nerves.

I'm sick of this election. And I can believe I'm saying this, but I'm sick of arguing with people over why I am more inclined to vote for McCain over Obama.

Most of it is philosphical and goes back to smart and limited government, and core Republican beliefs of family values and a strong national defense.

Call me a reluctant Republican this go round all you want. I really am.

I'm just ready to get this over with, deal with what we have to deal with for the next four years, hope whomever is elected doesn't screw things up even worse, and hope for better choices in 2012.

Is She? Could She Be?

I case you haven't noticed it by now on the right hand side of your screen, I would just like to take this opportunity to highlight a blog post by my former Political Science professor Chuck Dunn ---- "Is Sarah Palin the Next Ronald Reagan?"

This is a very interesting post - and Dr. Dunn brings up some very interesting points comparing Reagan and Palin's backgrounds, personalities, and beliefs.

Nothing in this world is certain. Something can happen at the very last minute to throw something out of whack. But if anyone has their pulse on what will or has a high likelihood of happening in the political arena, Dr. Dunn is one of the people whose opinions I respect the most and would look to first.

I had two political science professors at Clemson that really invigorated my political beliefs and thought processes. Dr. Dunn is one of them; Dr. Dave Woodard is the other. I would tend to believe either of their speculations, predictions, what-have-you, over any of the major political analysts we see on the national news. (Granted, both have been called on from time to time on the national arena for their expertise).

So to read Dr. Dunn's post and the tone in which he writes it -- I'm thinking his money is on McCain-Palin taking Obama down in the end.

I like Sarah Palin - alot. I really think her vice-presidency will do a lot to reinvigorate the Republican party. I hope it does anyway. She may very well end up being our first female president.

There are a lot of politicians in America. But the term "statesman" has only applied to a select few people that have served in the halls of Congress or in the White House. It's a very exclusive group and it's not one that you can really buy your way into. You might argue that from the perspective of who has the biggest campaign wallet, one can certainly try to buy their way into that club.

But being a "statesman" is not something tangible. It's just something that someone just naturally exudes.

Ronald Reagan I think was our last true statesman. A man of the country, a man of the people, a man of his word, and a man of principle. Is Sarah Palin or will she become our first true "stateswoman"? Only time will tell.

Even if McCain doesn't win this election, I don't think we'll be counting Sarah Palin out anytime soon. The fire has been lit......

This is What We've Been Waiting For

Graphic courtesy/via FoxNews.com

Today is the most exciting day I have ever experienced as a political junkie - and as an American.

Not that John McCain really excites me himself...

But I've been waiting for the day when I've been hit with political chills of excitement. It just happened.

John McCain picked THE BEST candidate for the job of Vice President. He picked THE BEST choice.

Sarah Palin.

We've got this in the bag now. Had he gone with Romney or Pawlenty, I would have moved to Australia.

Sarah Palin.

I am so, so excited about this.

Oh, and to lead in to McCain's introduction today with Van Halen's "Right Now"..... Sweet.

(more to come later....)

And This All Has What in Common? Umm....

I've had a crazy summer. I finally got the magazine done that I've been working on. But I've still got a hundred other things to do this week before our students come back to campus. There's been a lot of stuff keeping me busy at work; and during most of our weekends this summer my wife and I haven't really had a whole lot of spare time to just relax. To top it all off, I've wanted to blog this past week - but haven't really been inspired by any particular topics of interest.

So I'll kind of hit a few random topics:

• The Olympics. Our swimming team is on a tear. Michael Phelps and the crew definitely went in with their game on. Of our 21 athletes so far to receive medals, 17 are on our swimming team. But I'm really not too into the Olympics this year for some reason. I tend to like the Winter Olympics more -- ice hockey, luge, bobsled, snowboarding, snow skiing, and especially ice skating.
• Election 2008. Is anyone else just sick of this election season? It's been going on for nearly 2 years now. And neither one of the candidates are at all exciting. I'm truly at a loss for words with these clowns. Not that I would want Paris Hilton in office, but at least she'd keep things interesting. I'm about at the point where I think I'm going to write Ted Nugent in as who I want to be elected president. Seriously.
• On sort of that note .... John Edwards. Okay, so it is now five days now since he admitted he had an affair. As of right now, he is currently in the 7th headline on MSNBC.com, below the 4 featured articles; he is not even in the headlines on CNN.com. However, he is the 2nd featured article currently on FoxNews.com. So what does this say? If the situation were to be reversed and, say, Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee admitted that they had an affair, conversely, their placement in the annoying over-liberal general media would be higher most eveywhere, most likely in that No. 2 slot on nearly every news Web site, and you'd find the article buried on the FoxNews Web site (arguably, the best news outlet in the world).
  
  • A. That just goes to show you that there is no such thing as unbiased journalism. I should know. I've been the reporter and I've written the articles.
  • B. Liberal media let their people slide. So what if a democratic Senator had an affair? So what if he had an affair on his wife who was going through an ordeal with cancer? No biggie. WRONG. That is a big deal. For anyone. No matter what your political affiliation. However, I can't help wonder if this had happened with a former Republican candidate for president that the media would crucify them and this would be the story of the day for three weeks.
• Russia Invades Georgia ... I'm not really sure where I am on this. That last thing we need is another civil war going on in this world and another conflict to keep from spewing over into other countries. The Security Council needs to act quickly on this. We don't want another situation like what happened when Yugoslavia broke apart and drove the entire region into war for a decade.
  
• Barbecue ... We watched a show on the food network last night about the "three big barbecue states" in the U.S., those 'supposedly' being North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Not to deny those states' influences on one of the best foods on Earth, but South Carolinians know how to smoke some good pig too. I've been to too many barbecue restaurants and pig pickins around this area to put up with people denying South Carolina its rightful place on the barbecue map. By the way, if anyone is looking for some dang good barbecue, try Just More Barbecue in Pendleton, SC.
  
• Facebook ... I've been on Facebook for about a year now. I like it. It's fun - and provides a good tool for catching up with people you haven't talked to in a while or just as something fun to do with your friends. Facebook is implementing a redesign right now. I don't like it. Most people don't like change. I don't really care for it myself in a lot of cases. But when it totally confuses people and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, why do it? The new design is very confusing. The old one was pretty straightforward. There are a lot of websites that use a redesign as an excuse to make things overcomplicated. Case in point, a company I used to work for manages I think upwards of 100 television stations' websites now - when they redesigned a few years ago from the initial designs, it was just really ugly. Still is. This all gets back to if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  
  

So goes my ramblings for the time being. I may expand on any one or more of these posts in the near future. So until then, stay tuned.

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No, I Don't Want Corn In My Gas Tank

My wife and I were returning from Charlotte to visit my folks a few nights ago and about 30 miles from home noticed we had dropped down below a quarter of a tank of gas. I don't like to run the cars that low, so I took the next exit.

$3.77. Looks good to me. Pulled in and drove to the pump - but before I got out I noticed the sticker. Contains up to 15% ethanol. So we went on to the station next door. Contains up to 10% ethanol. Next station please. Contains up to 15% ethanol.

I'm not going to the Citgo next door. Citgo is owned by the national oil company of Venezuela. I am not about to put any of my money in Hugo Chavez's hands. He's one of the silent partners in the Axis of Evil.

Went down to the next exit -- and, ironically at a restaurant that I used to frequent while working at a job site during a summer job between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college, found a gas station that was selling non-ethanol blend gas. For the same exact price as the first station I had gone to.

I made the decision awhile ago to not put ethanol in my gas tank - in either car.

This is getting more and more difficult to do as more and more gas stations around here are starting to sell ethanol-blend gas. One of the biggest offenders is Stewart Spinks, also a silent partner in the AoE.

A good friend of ours is a service tech at the local Saturn dealership. He's told me some interesting stories about problems that more and more of their customers are running into after putting ethanol-blend gas in their tanks. We haven't had to have any major vehicle repairs in several years now. And I don't want to start by screwing up my fuel system.

If you look around on the Internet, you can find all kinds of interesting discussions about this.

The ethanol industry doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that there are valid concerns the vehicle owners have and are running into because of their own ignorance about ethanol.

• The Problem With Ethanol - Tampa Bay Online

Some facts about ethanol (you can decide for yourself whether each is a pro or con):

• Ethanol burns cleaner and reduces the amount of toxic emissions.
• Ethanol production is providing an economic boom for corn-farmers in the midwest
  
• Per gallon, ethanol produces 34 percent less energy than a gallon of gasoline and thus reduces your mileage. So you may not necessarily be getting more bang for you buck by purchasing ethanol-blend gas.
• To distill ethanol takes a 3:1 ratio of water to ethanol. It is very water intensive. A lot of states are facing severe drought and need to conserve the water that they currently have.
  
• Ethanol attracts water. When it mixes with water, ethanol separates from the gas and settles to the bottom of the tank with the water.
• Ethanol is corrosive. It eats through fiberglass. This is one reason boaters are having increasing problems with ethanol-blend fuel. There is currently a class-action suit in California against nine major oil companies (Ethanol-Blended Fuel Blamed for Boaters' Problems - ConsumerAffairs.com) because of this.
• Some manufacturers will void your vehicle's warranty if ethanol blends higher than 10 percent are used in its fuel system.
  
• In older model cars, ethanol will eat through rubber components in the fuel system and can loosen fuel tanks.
• More pros and cons..... and more
  

Flex-fuel vehicles are designed to run on up to 85 percent ethanol-15 percent gas and don't have a problem taking the E-10(10 percent mix) or E15(15 percent mix) that the stations I was trying to get gas at on our trip home sell. But flex fuel vehicles are relatively new and not all vehicle models are available as flex-fuel. FFVs really didn't take off until 2003 and after. And neither of our vehicles are FFVs.

• Check here to see if you have a flex fuel vehicle

My two favorite gas stations, Ingles Supermarket (based in Black Mountain, NC) and Murphy Gas (owned by Wal-Mart), do not sell ethanol-blend fuel. This is why unless I am not near one at the time I need to gas my car, I always go to one of the two. And they consistently have the lowest gas prices in this area.

So as long as I have a car with an engine that burns gasoline (whether a fully gasoline engine or a hybrid), I am going to frequent the gas stations without ethanol-based gas. I just wish that they would advertise in big-bold letters on their primary roadside price signs whether their fuel is ethanol-blend so I don't have to waste my time pulling up to the pump to find out.

I'm kind of torn on the The Open Fuel Standard Act proposed this week by Sam Brownback (R-KS), Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). It would require that, starting in 2012, 50 percent of all new vehicles be flex fuel and able to burn gasoline, ethanol and methanol, or biodiesel. By 2015, that requirement would go up to 80 percent. Yes, it does help get us away from our dependency on oil, whether foreign or domestic. But that still doesn't address the main issue we're facing by having non-renewable fuel sources still on the market as an option to make our cars move down the road.

Honestly though I think we need to direct our primary efforts toward hydrogen and/or 100 percent elctric vehicles. I think ethanol is basically the go-between from where we are right now to where we could and should be in the near future. And it pisses me off -- not only that I can't go to the pump and find the type of gas that I want every time, but that the companies selling this crap are snowing people with it.

I could go on and on about what's wrong with the energy policies in this country and what we could and should do to make things better for the environment and our own pocketbooks, but that's a post for another time. I could go on and on about blaming this person or that person, or the people who insist on driving gas-sucking SUVs and minivans (are these really necessary? -- is the status quo in the PTA just that important to you? This gets back to analogy of your friends jumping off a bridge...) For the record, I will never purchase an SUV or a minivan.

And I could go on and on about our government's lack of initiative in adequately addressing the issues. It's taken $4 a gallon gas for people to jump up and take notice.

To his credit, and although probably motivated by his own selfishness, oilman George W. Bush lifted the federal moratorium on offshore drilling last week that his dad put in place. Now we just have to wait and see if our liberally-lopsided Congress will allow drilling on the outer continental shelf. Not that that is really going to solve anything at this moment in time, but within the next decade it should provide us some valuable benefits. I don't think any Congress is going to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and I think that's a good thing. But with Bush's last minute drive to actually do something about our dependency on foreign oil, I think that's a step in the right direction. He may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I think this may help redeem his image.

McCain and Obama are at least putting in some effort required so that they can advertise that they each have an energy plan. I think McCain's Lexington Project is better and more realistic, but he's still an idiot. And I'm going to vote for the guy because I do not want a democrat in office along with a democratic congress. That would be really, really bad.

My father and I tend to diverge (not drastically, but enough to provide for some interesting discussions) on a lot of political issues. But we're pretty much both on the same page on our opinion of T. Boone Pickens' plan for foreign oil and U.S. energy consumption and policies. So if you're up for a good read, check out FoxNews' article today on Pickens' plan or my dad's series on energy policies over at his blog.

I'll probably follow up with more on this later.

To Vote or Not to Vote

I hadn't planned on voting today in the primary.

There were 14 people running in primaries today for county level positions in Greenville County. Our local U.S. House district had three candidates on the Democratic side and two on the Republican.

There were four positions on my Republican primary ballot -- county sheriff, state senator, U.S. House representative, and U.S. senator. I voted for all four incumbents -- I personally know two of them. Aside from the fact that I honestly know my one puny vote doesn't really mean squat when it comes down to the final numbers and I don't totally agree with everything they've done, I feel both of them have done pretty good jobs and wanted to show them my support, so I voted Bob Inglis for U.S. House and Lindsey Graham for U.S. Senate.

I didn't know hardly anything about the incumbents' challengers -- or any of the people running for our county council (although my county council district did not have anyone on the ballot today anyway).

I know that I myself am to blame to a large degree for my own ignorance of those candidates' platforms. I haven't really taken the time this election cycle to research them - which is something each voter is obligated to do.

Can ignorance really be bliss? When it comes to who we put in public office, I don't think so.

Frankly, I also put a great deal of blame on the candidates themselves, the media, and the party leaders for not getting adequate information out to the public.

The daily newspaper I used to work for several years ago would always make it a point to do side-by-side profiles of all the candidates, whether for city council or U.S. Senate, on the local ballots. I can remember several times putting those together. We did that because we felt it was our responsibility to our readers.

Both the local Democratic party and Republican party in the primary county that newspaper served are very active and make it a point to support all of their candidates and educate the local voters through a variety of methods.

Having moved to Greenville County a little less than three years ago and not really knowing any of the local players, it's a different ball-game now. I really feel out of the loop.

From what I've seen, the Greenville County parties and the major local daily have a lot to learn about educating the public.

I've been a political junkie pretty much since I got into college.

From being in the Clemson University College Republicans; to volunteering on Lindsey Graham's first congressional campaign; to writing a weekly point-counterpoint column against a very tree-hugging, liberal fellow reporter; to actively working on getting a good friend elected to Congress (including long sweaty days of driving through five counties, digging holes and putting up 8' x 4' campaign sides and even carrying campaign materials to rallies that he wasn't able to attend), I've gotten to work with and know some people who are now in some pretty powerful positions.

But that's just me.... then there's the general public.

There are a lot of people that don't know a thing about the people who are deciding trash pickup fees or property zoning issues -and in turn don't feel right about going out to the polls and making an uniformed decision.

Admittedly, that was my pseudo-dilemma today.

Registered voters have at least made the conscious decision at some point that voting is somewhat important to them. If you are registered to vote, there is no excuse for you not to - unless you have an emergency come up that prevents you from getting to the polls.

I had to tell myself that today on my way home. I know I would have been guilt-tripping myself until November unless I voted today in the primary.

Of course there are a lot of people who don't feel it necessary to vote at all (or even register to vote). Voter dissatisfaction or apathy can be very powerful forces. But there are people in those groups who then turn around and bitch about what's going on when their city council, county council, school board, or their state and federal legislators do something they don't like.

If you don't like what your elected officials are doing, then get off your ass, fill out your registration (you can do it online now) and go to the polls.

I really can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to take advantage of their right to vote.

I've voted in every election that in which I have been able to since turning 18. I've cast most of my votes based on my knowledge of the candidates' platforms. There have been a few instances in which I have voted against someone based on interaction with them. And I have voted for a few Democrats: case and point, in 2006 I voted for incumbent Grady Patterson over Thomas Ravenel in the SC Treasurer's race. We saw how well having Ravenel as treasurer turned out.

They're saying that the turnout in some of our county's precincts today was as low as 10 percent. That is truly pathetic.

We as voters may not always put people in office who in the long run are good for our city, county, state, or country. But we do have that right and responsibility to vote. Voting is the cornerstone of a viable democracy. It is the duty of each and every American citizen to register to vote, educate themselves about the candidates and go press that button on election day. We owe it to the people who fought for us to have that liberty.

So I'm making it a point between now and November to become as knowledgeable about each and every candidate that will be on my ballot as possible.

I Think I'm Going to Be Sick

Super Tuesday is now over. As expected, no one clear frontrunner has been established for either party. All the politicos, news organizations, and analysts are predicting though a McCain-led Republican ticket and a Hillary-led Democratic ticket. If that's what we're going to have to choose from, I think I'm going to be sick.

Even though I graduated Clemson University with a degree in Political Science, I promised myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't discuss politics on here. I have my reasons for that. But I'm now breaking that promise.

I am so frustrated with the political system in this country. Not many people really undestand, or grasp the concept of primaries, caucuses, delegates, and super-delegates. Not many people really get why the electoral college is in true control of the outcome of presidential elections. (thank God for that in 2000 - or we would have had Al Gore as president when 9/11 happened. I have nightmares about that scenario every night). We need someone in office, regardless of party, that will call for a reevaluation and restructuring of how we put these people in the Oval Offfice. The system is broken - and it needs to be fixed. In my ideal world, we'd eliminate the state primaries, caucuses, and the electoral college and have a national primary for the presidential candidate from each party and follow that up with a national primary for vice-president. I realistically though *sigh* don't think that (if it were to ever happen) would happen in my lifetime.

We're all so tired of the partisan bickering, backroom deals, and politics of legislating - period. My party, the GOP, has totally lost its way. What happened to the Contract With America? Personal agendas and bank accounts got it the way. What happened to keeping the American citizen - our security and our well being - a priority? Again, personal agendas and bank accounts have gotten in the way. No one seems willing to step up to the plate with a true vision of steering this country back on track and in a prosperous direction. These candidates may say they want to fix our economy, provide better health care and education, secure our borders, protect us from international threats, rebuild our industrial base, pursue scientific innovation, and this and that. But what it all comes down to is a power trip for them. Our own government is what has screwed this country up in the first place and our government will continue to be the main reason why every other nation in the world thinks we're a bunch of idiots.

To continue my rant, here's a little something that I posted on FoxNews' discussion board this morning:

Hillary being elected presisdent, with a Democratic congress in power, is the worst of all worlds because in that situation she will have the most ability to push her agenda through. Think about it people (this goes back to what was taught in your high school Government 101 class): the president does not make the laws. The president does not pass the laws. The president proposes legislation. And it is up to Congress to act on those proposals or throw them in the trash. The president is the Cheif Executive of the United States - they execute and enforce the laws; they nominate judges (which is a scary thought on its own with Hillary in office). THE PRESIDENT DOES NOT MAKE THE LAWS - THEY ONlY ENFORCE THEM. CONGRESS MAKES THE LAWS. Democratic president + democratic congress = alot of scary stuff.

That being said, we do not need Hillary in office to even try to get her platform on Congress’ agenda. Universal health care? We’ll go bankrupt. Pulling our troops out of Iraq? Once we leave, the Iranians and the Syrians will invade it and throw the entire region into more chaos than it already is. If there is any hope for democracy and a stable situtation in Iraq, we will need to have a consistent military presence there for years to come. Giving illegal immigrants an opportunity to earn legal status? No way. If they’re here illegally, track them down and deport them. If immigrants want to be in this country, they should be required to do it the legal way. Illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans, driving up our health care costs, and taking precious resources away from our public education system. Do we want someone who supports all this in office? I certainly don’t.

The one person that had the right ideas was Fred Thompson - and he’s out because he wasn’t willing to get the job done and actually RUN for president. Now we’re probably going to be stuck with McCain, who is one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress, and Hillary Clinton to choose from.

Think about this: there are still alot of countries in this world that do not think highly of women in high positions or of any status at all. Do you think they will take us seriously with her in office? I don’t think so. They’re going to try to take advantage of her and our nation any way they can. And what will she do then? - maybe posibly lob some cruise missiles at a pile of dirt in some remote portion of their country just like her husband did when he felt like flexing a little muscle. If we’re going to elect a woman president in this day and age, it needs to be Condi Rice because these countries that we’re having to deal with potentital threats from in the 21st century know that Condi means business and she’ll kick them to the curb.

There are so many things wrong with this country today and everyone thinks they have a better way to fix them. I have my own thoughts; you have yours. Nobody has the ultimate solution for everything. And the people that are on the ticket(s) still are the best that have stepped up to the plate for us to have to choose from? That is truly pathetic. I’m a diehard, conservative, card-carrying member of the GOP. I hate what our party has come to. It is fractured to the point where I don’t think any of the candidates we have can pull it back together and get it on track to defeat Hillary. We need a uniter. Is there really one on either ticket? I don’t think so.

Sorry for the ranting - I just needed to get all that off my chest before I go throw up.

Presidential Paintball

I found this today -- it's pretty cool. It really brings about a lot of enjoyment being able to cap Hillary Clinton and John Edwards repeatedly with a barrage of paintballs. Try it out!

Presidential Paintball Hillary, Obama, Giuliani & more play paintball for the USA Presidency!

Play this free game now!!